Russian Website Is Reined In Over Article on Ukrainian

MOSCOW — The retribution against one of Russia’s most popular independent online news organizations, Lenta.ru, was as swift as it was unexpected. And to many it served as an ominous warning about the state of the media today as the conflict over Ukraine deepens.

On Tuesday morning, the country’s media watchdog formally cautioned the website after it published an interview with the leader of a Ukrainian nationalist organization that Russia has denounced as fascist. By afternoon, the site’s editor for the last decade was ousted and replaced by another editor viewed as more loyal to the Kremlin.

Lenta.ru, known for aggressive coverage in a news media dominated by state-owned or state-controlled outlets, announced the departure of its editor, Galina Timchenko, without explanation, but soon posted a letter of protest signed by 79 staff members, blaming “direct pressure” from the Kremlin for her dismissal.

“Over the past couple of years the space for free journalism in Russia has decreased dramatically,” the statement said. “Some publications are controlled directly from the Kremlin, others through curators, still others by editors who fear losing their jobs. Some media outlets were closed. Others will be closed in the coming weeks.”

The statement read like a mass resignation, though it remained unclear how the organization’s staff — or its editorial policy — would be affected.

Lenta.ru is owned by a media company called Afisha-Rambler-SUP, controlled in part by Aleksandr Mamut, a Russian billionaire. The company also owns the country’s most popular blogging site, LiveJournal. An official at the company declined to comment.

The government’s efforts to control the media under President Vladimir V. Putin are hardly new, but as the turmoil in Ukraine has unfolded in recent months, a series of decisions have raised fears that the Kremlin intends to tighten its grip beyond the dominant television networks that shape its message.

In December, Mr. Putin dissolved the official state news agency, RIA Novosti, and now is organizing a new one under a television executive and host, Dmitry K. Kiselyov, who is best known for virulent commentary on various foreign conspiracies he and others say are threatening Russia.

In January, the independent television network Dozhd, or Rain, was dropped by most of the country’s cable providers, ostensibly for conducting a poll that asked if the Soviet Union would have been better off surrendering Leningrad during World War II, rather than enduring the siege by Nazi Germany. A month later, the long-serving executive director of the radio station Ekho Moskvy, perhaps the most prominent opposition news outlet, was replaced by a senior editor of the state radio network, Voice of Russia.

“The problem is not that we have nowhere to work,” the statement by Lenta.ru’s staff said. “The problem is that it seems you have nothing more to read.”

Russia’s media watchdog, known as Roskomnadzor, warned Lenta.ru that it had violated Russia’s laws against promoting extremism in the media. Two warnings are grounds for repealing its license. It cited an interview with Andriy Tarasenko, the leader in Kiev of the nationalist coalition, Right Sector, which played a prominent role in the protests against the government of Viktor F. Yanukovych.

The interview, published Monday, was headlined “We Are Not Armed Forces.” It has since been removed from the site. The reporter who conducted the interview, Ilya Azar, said by telephone that he intended to quit rather than work under the new editor.

Lenta.ru was also warned for linking to remarks by Right Sector’s leader, Dmytro Yarosh. A court here effectively indicted him in absentia on Wednesday of promoting extremism in Russia itself and said it would seek an international arrest warrant.

Alexandra Odynova contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A12 of the New York edition with the headline: Russian Site Is Reined In Over Article on Ukrainian. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe